From Pancakes to Proms
by Baldore
Summary: Two best friends lives have settled into a normal routine of training to be Hunters. At least, as normal as life ever is at Beacon with Nora around. But when an annual traditional of Beacon's rolls around, how will these two cope with something even deadlier than the Emerald Forest? How will the students react to...prom night?
1. Chapter 1

_Disclaimer; I only own my plots and original stuff in the story. Characters, Beacon, etc. all belong to RoosterTeeth._

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Chapter One; No Pancakes Are Safe...

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"No, absolutely not."

"C'mon, pleaaaaaaaaaaaaase! Please, please, please!"

"Nora."

"Ren!" She replied happily, seemingly oblivious to his frustrations.

"It's one o'clock in the morning..."

"Yup!"

"...and you want me to make pancakes." The Hunter in training sighed, rubbing sleep out of his eyes.

"Yup!" Nora nodded, orange hair bouncing up and down. Giving her best friend her 'puppy dog' face, making her eyes as but as Nora-ly possible and looking sad. And as much as Ren hated it, he subconsciously began debating giving in. Sensing his inner dilemma, Nora pressed her advantage. "Pleeeeease?"

"No."

"Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeedeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeasaaaaaaaaaaa-"

"Nora."

-aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaasssssssssssssssssssssseeeeeeeeeeeeeee?"

Rolling his eyes in resignation, Ren slung his legs out of his bed and got up. He knew giving in just encouraged her but he also knew that she wouldn't stop bothering him until he gave in to what she wanted. As he stretched out, he realized something. "Nora?"

"Hmmmmmmmmm?"

"How long have you been up?" He fixed his gaze on her realizing that she had been laying beside him...as she had pulled her bed from it's original position to next to his.

"'Bout an hour-ish, I've been practicing my Sloth noises." She answered popping out of bed, skipping after him towards the makeshift kitchen in Team JNPR's dorm. "Wanna hear? Ooooooor, how about a Gerbil? Wadda think a Gerbil sounds like? Maybe we should get one as team pet! Oh, oh! We could get a _pink_ Gerbil!"

"Nora, I still don't think Sloths, or Gerbils for that matter, make much noise. Nor do I think that our teammates would be happy with suddenly having a pink 'team mascot.' And did you happen to notice the beds?" Ren smiled inwardly as he gestured at the new living arrangements and retrieved the baking supplies necessary to concoct pancakes. After putting up with Nora's antics for so long, he'd almost grown used to them. Almost.

"Yup!"

"Did you do it?" He cut to the chase, simultaneously whisking the pancake batter.

"Yup!" Nora grinned. "It's like when we used to share a bed during those sleepovers as kids!"

"Nora, we've talked about this." Ren began to explain, once again, to the Hammer-Weilder basic social protocol. "Because we're both teenagers now, that means separate beds."

"Aaah," She pouted, not getting it (still) and (once again) missing the slight pink tinge to Ren's cheeks. After a few moments of dejected but careful contemplation, she pointed something out. "Technically the beds are still separate."

"No, Nora." Ren had finished the pancakes by now and served the steaming dishes on two plates. Handing one to Nora, he calmly sat cross legged on the floor and began eating his. "And don't touch the syrup, Juane's saving it."

"Aaaaaaah," She sighed, putting the container she'd been about to uncap back into the cubboard. Only slightly put off, she plopped down next to Ren and promptly began to wolf down pancakes. The circular pastries disappeared into Nora's mouth almost faster than even Ren's eye could track.

While she frantically consumed pancakes as if her life depended on it, the hunter calmly began his in a more civilized fashion and utilized the wonders of the fork. He'd barely began before he sensed a pair of eyes boring into him...or more specifically, his pancakes. A glance at his best friend confirmed his sixth sense's suspicion. Through some wondrous hidden ability linked to her sweet tooth, Ren was still convinced that she had to have a hollow leg, Nora had already managed to conquer the mountain of food that had previously occupied the now empty space of her plate.

With a small inward sigh, he slid the plate of pancakes over. When Nora didn't immediately start inhaling the plate's contents, he gave her a small smile. "Go on. I'm not hungry, anyway."

"Thanks, Ren!" She thanked him gratefully before eagerly consuming the second plate of pancakes. As he watched the amazing spectacle of a teenage girl putting away almost two dozen pancakes in a time that would make the most skilled 'speed-eater' green with envy, he once again contemplated just as to why he enabled her. Unfortunately she knew almost as well as he did, that he'd do most anything for the hyper-active, pink loving girl.

Heck, just look at the pink strip in his hair. He'd hardly done that voluntarily.

Jarring himself from his thoughts, Ren stood up, yawned, stretched and turned away from the table. Before he'd even taken two steps away, Nora stopped him.

"Whae 'ou gomin?" She said with her mouth full of pancake before the last remaining pancake disappeared and she swallowed. She frowned deeply, an action that Ren thought looked outright wrong own her normal jovial face, at the sight of Ren making tracks towards his place of sleep. Attempting to communicate her question once more, she asked again without food in her mouth. "Where are you going?"

"Nora, it's one o'clock in the morning. I'm going to bed," Ren stated, falling back into his bed. Sometimes, Nora just wore him out. If he didn't have- _'No, don't finish that thought,_' he mentally scolded himself. _'She's your best friend, nothing more_.'

"And move your bed back. This is why Juane and Pyrra don't want to leave us unsupervised."

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_Author's Note_; There's the first chapter! Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed it! (Hopefully, I didn't butcher Ren or Nora's characters...) I'll try to update this pretty soon but it isn't my first on-going story, so unless this gains wild popularity, you might have to bear with me until next the update. Until next time, Baldore out!


	2. Chapter 2

_Disclaimer; I only own my plots and original stuff in the story. Characters, Beacon, etc. all belong to RoosterTeeth._

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Chapter Two; Having a ball.

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"She did what?" Jaune chuckled at his friend's past dilemma. "I'd say that you're exaggerating but I know Nora."

"Unfortunately," Ren muttered. He was a little cranky since after the pancake incident, since after that he'd been woken up yet again by his partner. Or rather, his partner's newest acquisition. "Sometimes I wonder if she sleeps. Or if she's a robot."

Both occupants of the Beacon lunch table shared a shudder, thinking of Penny, before feeling immediately guilty. She_ had_ saved their butts. But she was just a little...off. As if she didn't picl up on any social ques. All in all though, any Team RWBY or Team JNPR members would admit that she was their friend despite her quirks.

"No," Jaune pointed out, absently playing with his food, rolling peas around with his fork. "We know what androids are like. Nora's human. Speaking of her, where did she and Pyrra go?"

"Shopping with Team RWBY." Ren stated, actually slightly missing his orange haired friend. "Ruby decided to have a 'Girl's night'. Yang enforced it and Weiss is funding it.I think Penny might be tagging along to."

"Ah..." Jaune smiled. "Oh, and you never did exactly explain what _did_ happen to the dorm room?"

"Remember what I said about a Gerbil? Well, just leave it at the fact that they don't like it when certain JNPR members try and dye them pink." The green clad warrior stated, expression not giving anything away. "And explosive Dust canisters don't help."

Jaune's eyes widened slightly. "And what happened to the Gerbil? Did it live? For that matter, where'd Nora get a Gerbil at two in the morning?"

"I don't even want to know," He replied. "And I had to donate it to a local pet store."

"Vale has a pet store?"

"Apparently."

"Huh," JNPR's leader mused. Well, he never...

"So how was training last night?" Ren inquired. "You look beat."

Jaune groaned, planting his face on his hands. "You have no idea. Why do you think we didn't get back until almost three? Pyrra had me training all night. I think she's mad at me for something."

"Hm...what'd you do?"

"Nothing! Absolutely _nothing_! Everything was peachy, nothing wrong then, Boom! Training 'till three!" Jaune complained.

"Hmmm," Ren said again cryptically. "Maybe she's just kicking up your training."

"No, she had fury in her green eyes, Ren. Unadulterated _Fury_." The blond disagreed, frantically shaking his eyes. "It was probably the scariest thing I've ever been through. I was scared for my life!"

Ren shrugged at his nearly hysteric friend. "Scarier than when you were standing between Ruby and that plate chocolate chip cookies?"

Jaune nodded, eyeswide.

Ren raised an eyebrow. It must have been serious then...suddenly his sixth sense warned him of a presence behind him. Spinning, he brought out Storm Flower and aimed it at...

Sky Lark.

The other Beacon student rapidly back-pedaled as Ren calmly snapped the SMG back into its hiding spot in his sleeve. Then he calmly turned back to Juan and sat down once more, motioning for Lark to sit beside him.

The CRDL member accepted, plopping down in the offered seat. Sky's friendship with Teams RWBY and JNPR was a rather recent development. After the whole situation in the Forever Falls, all the CRDL members apologized for their actions (even Cardin, though he was bitter about it) and they thee teams became fast friends. Out of all them, Sky seemed to be the one to drop by the most and the friendliest of the lot.

"Hey, mates," He smiled nervously, keeping an eye on Ren's sleeves. The blades on that thing was wicked. "What's goin' on?"

"Nothing," Ren supplied unhelpfully.

"Riiight," Lark said. "So, have you guys heard the news?"

"What news?" Jaune asked, snapping out of his reverie.

"I'll take that as a _no_," He grinned. "What do you his know of Beacon's traditions?"

"They drop the recruits into a forest full of deadly Grimm and hope they live," Ren said dryly. "I'm not sure I WANT to know other traditions."

"Ah, c'mon! This one is good!"

Neither Ren nor Jaune looked excited.

"You guys want to guess?"

Several seconds passed with only a shrug from Jaune.

"Fine," Sky sighed at the killjoys. "Beacon Academy is having. . ."

"Are you going to tell us, Lark?" Ren asked impatiently.

"It was a dramatic pause, Lie," He shot back. "Beacon academy is having...a Ball!"

"Like a good time?" Jaune asked, confusion clear on his face.

"No, no, no," Lark shook his back and forth on rapid succession. "A ball! You know? A dance? Prom? Haven't you been to one before?"

"No." Ren commented.

"Nope," Jaune agreed. "What's the point?"

"Eh, well..." Sky scratched his head. "To have fun, I guess. You guys seriously have never been to a Ball before?" He got blank faves in response. "Jeez, mates. That's just sad. So who are you taking?"

"Taking?"

"Yeah, who are you going with?" Sky just got more blank looks. "You know, a date? I assume that Ren's taking Nora, cuz they're dating and all-"

"We're not dating, Lark." Ren corrected. "Best friends, not dating."

"Uh-huh," Sky grinned patronizingly. "But if you go, you'll go with her right?"

"Probably," Ren conceded.

"See? You're practically dating already." Before the other could respond, Sky turned to Jaune. "How about you? Taking Pyrrha?"

Jaune choked on his glass of milk and began sputtering for breath. "Say what?!"

"You can't seriously say that you've misused everything. She is obviously into you, Juane." Sky looked genuinely surprised he didn't know. "So are you going to ask her? It _is_ tradition for the guy to ask the girl."

As said guy turned the color of said lady's hair, Ren butted in to save his team leader. "And what about you, Lark? Who are you taking?"

"Velvet," He beamed, a huge smile plastered on his face. "I'm taking Velvet."

"Really?" Now it was Ren's turn to be surprised, that surprise showing through an arched eyebrow. "She agreed to go with you?"

"Ah, well...not exactly," The Hunter-in-training's face fell. "I haven't asked her yet. You don't think she'll accept?"

"She might," Ren said after careful consideration. "Why Velvet? I thought you hated Faunas."

The would be suitor shook his head. "No, I was just following my team leader, if you're referring to the bullying. Cardin...he had a bad experience with a Faunus as a kid. After a while, we finally had enough and had a long talk with Cardin and convinced him that Faunas are bad."

"Took you long enough," Jaune snorted. "And what was Cardin's 'bad experience'?"

"Yeah, your performance in the Forever Forest helped spur us into action. " Lark admitted before becoming slightly uncomfterable. "And you'd have to ask him about that. Anyway, after that, I apologized to anybody that we bullied. I made up with Velvet and we're on good terms. . . Do you think she'd agree to go with me?"

"Well, if you want to find out, you might want to hurry," Ren motioned to a certain Faunus about to exit the dining hall.

"Wha...?-oh, thanks!" Lark spotted her and frantically, and not real gracefully, hopped out his chair and ran out after her.

Juane turned to Ren as Lark disappeared. "Thanks, Ren. I owe you one. But can I ask you something?"

He nodded.

"Do you like Nora?"

"No, we're friends," Ren stated before countering with his own question. "Do you like Pyrrha?"

"Maybe," Jaune admitted. "But she deserves better."

"Or maybe, if Lark is correct, Pyrrha likes you for a reason," Ren stated, before glancing at his watch and gathering his trash. As Jaune moved to follow him, he pointed something. "Maybe that's why she was upset with you."

"Ah, crap."

As the two male JNPR members threw out their trash, contemplated their conversation and headed out, Juane had one last question for his teammate.

"Who knew Beacon had a Prom?"

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Author's note; Here's chapter two! Yeah, I know, I said it would be a while but I got enough favorites and follows to encourage me to update it already. So, thanks everybody! I really appreciate it! Oh, and as for Sky Lark's appearance, I wanted to include a charactering the show but had little to no development in the show. For all I know, they'll make him a jerk in season two but this is a fanfic. And, if you want to see something in this story or a future sequel, just tell me and I'll take it into account. So thanks and until next time, Baldore out!


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three; Do You Ever Wonder Why We're Here...?

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"So, why exactly are we shopping?" Blake asked, strait to the point. Honestly, she'd rather be back at Beacon, reading but a certain team leader insisted that the ENTIRE team came, regardless of whether they wanted to or not.

"Becaaaaaaaaause," Nora drew out the two syllable word until it was at least ten. "...Well, I don't actually know. I just wanted to go shopping! Soooooooooo, why are we? Huh, huh? Whyyyyyyy?"

Pyrrha sighed, maybe bringing Nora along without her Handler slash best friend was a bad idea. At least Ren could get her calmed down enough that she wasn't bouncing off the walls, both figuratively and literally. "Nora-"

"Aaaah, come on, Pyrrha, you know that you're curious too!" The orange haired girl giggled, somehow having climbed a light post and start hanging upside down from it before anybody else had noticed.

"I am very excited to be having a 'Girl's Night'!" Penny exclaimed happily, cutting into the conversation.

"Er...Penny, we're just shopping. You know that right?" Yang asked, awkwardly rubbing her long yellow locks.

"Oh." Her face fell before brightening. "But this shopping sounds like an enjoyable activity too!"

"Right. . ." Blake muttered, obviously still not sold on the whole idea. And she still didn't know why the were even doing this.

"Ruby, I think you've kept us in the dark for long enough." Weiss sighed, tapping her foot impatiently. "Why did you insist on a sudden shopping trip?"

"Pyrrha knows!" RWBY's leader announced cheerfully.

"I do?"

"Yup!"

"Ruby, I have no idea. You're the one who rounded us all up and brought us shopping."

"But you know _why_!" Ruby grinned.

"What-oh." The truth dawned on Pyrrha.

"What? What is it?" Weiss demanded angrily.

"We're shopping for Prom!" Ruby clapped giddily at her announcement.

"Prom?" Yang's eyes lit up but not like when she was using her Semblance. More of a 'Holy Dust, this is going to be amazing!' sort of way "We've got a Prom at Beacon? Since when?"

"Apparently it's an 'annual Beacon tradition'," Pyrrha put the last part in quotations using her fingers.

Nora flipped back down, landing perfectly on her feet. "Oooooh, is that why you tried to kill Juane last night in your training session? Cause you guys didn't get back till like three! You missed Ren's pancakes! And-"

"Nora, calm down," Blake sighed before addressing Pyrrha. "And you tried to kill Juane?"

"No, I didn't try to kill him exactly," Pyrrha said turning red from embarrassment. "I was just frustrated."

"About the prom?"

A nod.

"Does he know about this prom?" Yang laughed, obviously relishing the new opportunity for teasing.

A shrug.

"So then maybe you shouldn't have beat him 'till he was black and blue."

"Anyway," Pyrrha said, frantically trying to change the subject. "What does this Prom have to do with us shopping?"

"We're dress shopping! Yay!" Ruby beamed.

"Oh, goody!" Penny exclaimed, high fiving Ruby.

"Oh, joy," Weiss reaction was the polar opposite of the android's, Sarcasm thickly lacing her comment. "We get to dress shop. I'm good."

"Ah, come on, Weiss!" Ruby whined. "It'll be fun!"

"No, you think I needs dress?" She snorted. "What do you think I'm wearing."

"Aaah, don't be such a buzz kill, Weiss," Yang exclaimed, grabbing her arm and preventing her from leaving. "My sis does have a point. This could be fun!"

"Yeah, let's split into groups and go adventuring!" Nora cheered, extending out Magnhild. "First one to kill a Nevermore wins!"

"Nora, dress shopping, not Grimm hunting." Blake informed her.

"Aaaaaah, what?"

"Dress shopping." Penny said. "Trying on and the eventual purchase of a dress for the event known as prom."

"Aaaaaah," Nora grumbled. "No Grimm?"

"No Grimm."

"Dang it. But I guess dress shopping is the next best thing." Nora sighed, in a rather rare moment for her, actually looking sad. Then she lit up again. "Maybe there'll be a Grimm attack!"

"Maybe," Pyrrha agreed, realizing that it was just better to agree in the long run. "But we could split up. Divide and conquer, meet back her afterwards."

"Sure," Yang agreed. "Groups?"

"Hoooooow abooooooout, Pyrrha, Ruby and and me versus Penny, Weiss, Blake and Yaaaaang?" Nora suggested, reluctantly stashing Magnhild.

"Oh, delightful idea!" Penny quickly started dragging off her victims, er, group off to their task.

"Well, let's go!" Nora announced, bouncing away with the Ruby and Pyrrha in tow.

"And Nora, you do realize this isn't a 'versus', right?" Pyrrha asked.

"Aaaaaaaah, what?"

* * *

"-and then the entire Dust store exploded violently!" Nora recounted a rather significantly embellished tale, happy noting that Ren wasn't there to correct her. The frowning, remembering that Ren wasn't there. Sighing, her story trailed off.

"Nora, you okay?" Pyrrha asked, realizing that whatever story Nora was telling trailed off.

"Yup! I was just wondering where Ren was! 'Cause we've been friends since childhood and been together since a looooong time ago." She rambled, as par second nature to her. "But not together together, just together. You know as friends!"

"Is that how you want to be together though?" Pyrrha asked, the quastion transforming Norra's face into a mask of thought.

"Who's together?" Ruby interupted, exiting the changing room in a deep sapphire dress. "And how do I look?"

"Ren and Nora, though not as a couple," Pyrra exclaimed before smiling. "And you look great! Though it's blue. I thought you only owned red."

"I do but I wanted to branch out!" She happily examined herself in the mirror before frowning. "But you're right, I look better in red!"

"Wait, that's not what I-" Pyrrha started but the other girl was already gone, just a few floating rosé petals where shed been moments before. "-meant."

"...and then Ren's hair was pink!" Nora finished proudly, she'd apparently answered her question, or avoided it, and started a new story while Pyrrha had been preoccupied with Ruby.

"Wait, what?" Pyrrha looked confused at that, not realizing Valkyrie was even telling another story. And about Ren's pink stripe, too. Though she'd always wondered how he'd gotten that. "Could you start over from the beginning?"

"Sure!" Came the chipper response. "Nora!"

"What?"

"That's my name!"

"But what does have to do with the story?"

"Nothing! You wanted to start over from the beginning, remember?"

"No, no, with the story."

"You sure that's what you meant?" Nora squinted. Pyrrha knew the other girl was extremely bright but sometimes she made Pyrrha wonder if there was some hidden punch line that she'd missed.

"Yes, I'm sure."

"Are you sure you're not Lie-ing?"

"...you did that all on purpose, didn't you?"

"Yup! I do all the time to Ren but he can predict it now," Nora pouted. "Ren's a ninja like that, right? One time as kids, he got in a fight and-"

"Ren got in a fight?" Pyrrha was surprised. Ren never started fights.

"Yup! Or no. Kinda," Nora decided, not seeming to want to give a strait answer. "We were outside playing and this mean kid came and I didn't like him, so I told him so. He called me some names and pushed me down. Ren jumped in and pushed him back. Both of them got in trouble but Ren said that I didn't do anything and the teacher took his word for it, since he's the perfect student and all. . ."

As Nora finished her story, the two of them fell into a quiet silence. Pyrrha noted that the story lacked Nora's usual ridiculous embellishment and the hyperactive girl was deep in thought after the recounting of the tale. Pyrrha left her to her thoughts as her own thoughts drifted to a certain team leader. A certain DENSE team leader.

How could Jaune flirt so much and yet miss that maybe someone actually liked him back? How could he ignore any and all the hints?

Oh Dust, he was just so dang dense!

Suddenly Ruby yanked Pyrrha out of her thoughts. "How about this one?"

Said dress was as red Crescant Rose, slightly to princessy for Pyrrha's taste and lined with black and pink. It even was dotted with roses that looked shockingly similar to the Rose family crest. While Pyrrha would never of worn the thing, Ruby pulled it off. "I love it! Back in red, huh?"

"Yup!" The girl chirped, the very color seemingly making her happy.

"Dibs on that pink dress!" Nora suddenly shouted, the abruptness of the exclamation shocking both Ruby out of their conversation. However the pink loving girl was gone before anybody had a chance to ask what dress she meant, or what she meant in general.

Staring at the spot that Nora previously occupied, Pyrrha spoke.

"Jeez. Ren's got his work cut out for him."

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_Author's Note;_ Hey, as always thanks for all the support you guys have given me, you have no idea how it's helped! Okay, first, thanks for all of those who caught the multitude of mistakes from my last chapter, I really appreciate it and all of the mistakes have been corrected. Second, due to this story's (relative) popularity, it's going to be longer than originally planned...Anyway, thanks again, and until next update, Baldore out!


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4; Angst and Advice

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"Nora," Ren stated back, as calm as she was hyper. "Good to know you haven't forgotten my name."

"Right!" She chirped happily before grinning. "Hey, hey, hey, Ren, guess what?"

"What?" He asked, humoring his partner. While it might seem that he was simply humoring her, since most of his attention appeared to be focused on cleaning his weapon. But that was actually wrong. He'd simply grown used to multitasking when he was holding a conversation with Nora. He might not appear to but in fact, he loved simply enjoying hearing her babble about whatever interested her, concerned her, excited her, frustrated her, infuriated her or simply caught her eye. If whatever it was did any of those, Ren knew he'd hear about it.

"C'mon, Ren! Guess!" She spoke sang, skipping circles around the table that he was calmly cleaning StormFlower at.

"We're going to a training mission in the Opal Outskirts for a training session tomorrow?" He phrased it like a question but he knew that it was true. The Opal Outskirts, an area that contained several cliffs, a dense forest, a complex cave system and a rather serious Grimm infestation was indeed their next field trip destination.

"Yup!" Nora cheerfully confirmed, as if somehow he had completely missed the announcement. "But do you know what were gonna be doing?"

"No idea, Nora."

"We're gonna be collecting Dust Crystals!" She bobbed her head. "It's not as tasty as that sap from Forever Fall but it'll still be fun! Maybe we could get a pink Dust crystal that they'll let us keep! Wouldn't that be awesome? Ooooh, I wonder what pink dust does...? Red's lightning, right? And White's like, kinetic force. I wonder...? Cuz Magnhild's dust appears pink but we both know it's colored White Dust. . ."

Ren stopped her there, knowing how off topic they'd get if she rambled. "Wait, they're just letting us mine Dust?" Normally, he'd already know this but he'd had to miss a day of class since the Beacon nurse _insisted_ that she check that his wounds from the Deathstalker had healed correctly.

"Yeah! Weeelll, not mine, but collecting," Nora nodded eagerly, orange hair bobbing. "Professor Peach says that the Opal Outskirts aren't very potent so big companies like the Schnee Dust Corporation don't bother with them but they make great training. Oh! She also said that if we collected enough, students might get to keep some! Wouldn't that be awesome?"

"That would be," Ren agreed. "What's up, Lark?"

The blue haired boy jumped at Ren suddenly addressing him, as he'd been approaching the table quietly as to not interrupt. And he hadn't even turned around! Cautiously he took a seat at the table and Nora stopped her skipping to do the same. "I've got a problem, dude..."

"What?" Ren asked calmly snapping StormFlower's pieces back into place and stashed the weapons back into his sleeves.

"Well, you remember several days back?" He asked, nervously wringing his hands. "You know, when ya and the Arc kid helped me out?"

Ren nodded and Nora looked confused, as she hadn't been there, and Sky continued. "Well, I got a problem with Velvet..."

"Break her legs!" Nora chipped in so suddenly that it made the other two doubt whether she understood the situation. Or who they were even talking about.

"It's not a bully problem, Nora." Ren sighed. "Different kind of problem."

"Aaaaaaah," Nora looked disappointed that her suggestion had fallen through again and Sky subtly shifted away from her. He valued his life...and his legs.

"So what happened, Lark?" Ren asked. From the CRDL's member dejected expression, he thought he knew the gist of it.

"She turned me down." Sky hurried his face in his hands after admitting that.

Lights lit up in Nora's eyes and she giggled maniacally. "You liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiike her!"

Sky's face then proceeded to get buried even further into his hands. "So what if I do, mate? Dove already is teasing me endlessly 'bout it. You'd think he'd give his partner his break, wouldn'tcha?"

"What happened?" The calmer of the two present JNPR members asked.

"So, I caught up to her in the lunchroom, right? And we made some small talk for a bit, 'bout Oobleck and Port's classes...that kinda thing," Sky mumbled from his self inflicted prison that at this point was him face down with both hands on his head. "Finally, I worked up the courage to ask 'er 'bout maybe goin' to da dance with me..."

"And?" Ren prodded after a second. Nora was unusually quiet, a look plastered over her face that Ren recognized as the 'deep in thought, oblivious to the world' look. After a second she snapped out of it and quietly, something extremely off for her, said she had to go find Pyrrha. Ren nodded, ignored a pang in his stomach as she left and turned back to Lark.

"She said...she said 'I'll think about it'," Sky moaned in despair. "What'm I gonna do, mate? I totally blew it!"

Ren arched an eyebrow. "That's it?"

"Wadda ya mean, 'that's it?' She probably hates me!" Sky stated matter of factly, leaving his cozy of protection under his arms. Then a wave of horror passed over his face. "She does, doesn't she? I mean, she's got every right to, after how I was...oh, Dust. I shouldn'tve done all that stuff to 'er! I mean, I knew that before but...She hates me! She-"

After dealing with Nora for so long, Ren knew when to cut off a rambling rant before it got to bad. "You didn't blow it, Lark."

"I did, mate!" The CRDL member frantically shook his head. "Blew it!"

"She didn't turn you down, did she?"

A nod of conformation followed by a look of realization.

"Then she doesn't hate you," Ren reasoned calmly. "And there's still another two weeks or so until Prom night, correct?"

Another nod.

"Want my advice?" Ren waited for another nod before continuing. "Give it time and don't pressure her. Spend some free time with her, get to know each other some more. Once prom gets a little closer, ask her again. Maybe you'll get a different answer this time."

Sky smiled at this, logic regaining control over his panic. "Maybe you're right, mate! Thanks, Lie!"

As Ren nodded in return, another Beacon student walked over to the outdoor table they were seated at. The Faunas, for it happened to be the subject of the conversation held seconds earlier, smiled politely at them.

"Would you mind if I sat here too?" Velvet asked shy, brushing a lock of brown hair out of her eyes.

"No, go ahead." Ren said standing. "I was about to go find Nora, anyway. So I'll leave you two to it."

As he walked away, Sky caught his eye with a grateful smile and a mouthed 'thanks'. Ren returned the motion with a rare small smile of his own before heading out to find his partner. As it turned out, he didn't have to go far before she found him.

"Ren, Ren! Reeeeeeeen!" She grinned, happily falling into step beside him. "I found Pyrrha but she was busy. She and Jaune were training up on the roof again. Probably getting more practice in before the trip. It seems like a good idea. Maybe we should get more training too. Or maybe not. I dunno. Whadda you think, Ren?"

"I think we're good." Ren said simply. They spent most of their time training already.

"Hey, Ren?" Nora asked. The question sounded jus as chipper as every other time she asked it in the day but he detected a small trace of something hiding underneath.

"Yes, Nora?"

"How long have you been giving relationship advice out?"

"Well," While no one except for Nora would notice, the question threw him off. He had known shed listened in on the beginning of his and Lark's conversation but the question still caught him off guard. "Just for Lark, actually. He came to Jaune and I one day when you, Pyrrha and Team RWBY were out dress shopping. Why?"

"Because you've never had a girlfriend yourself, have you?" Nora asked even though they both knew the answer.

"No."

And that's what lead to the first awkward silence between Rem and Nora to their memories. Sure, they'd had silences between then before but they had always been comfterrable between the two friends. But this one was thick with tension, as if some question that they both wanted to ask hung just under the surface. A question that they both hoped, feared, dreaded and anticipated to be asked.

When it wasn't, they both stayed silent for several seconds longer.

Then Nora broke the silence, shattering the awkward tension as if had never existed in the first place. "So you wanna go to the dance together? Not together together but together. I've got a pretty dress and its going to be so much fun! Oh! Maybe we should get a signal..."

Ren shoved aside the jumpy feeling he felt at the thought of being together together with Nora and smiled. "I don't think we need a signal for it, Nora."

"Ahhhhhhhh," Nora groaned in disappointment. "Signal's make everything better."

Ren sighed, knowing he shouldn't give in. "How about you make a signal for tomorrow's mission?"

Nora's squeal of joy could probably be heard from Professor Port's room on the other side of Beacon.

* * *

_Author's Note_; Simply said, you guys astound me. I planned for this to be a short story, max of three chaps, and now it looks to be at least six. So thanks for all your support! Also, Sky's entrance was actually put into this chapter since I got an awesome review concerning his characterization. Which brings me to the point that thank you guys for all the awesome reviews, they just make my day. Finally, I created the Opal Outskirts, since I didn't want to use the Emerald Forest or Forever Fall simply because they've been used a lot...Okay, sorry for rambling, Baldore out!

Edit: Thanks to Nixta for keeping me accountable on spelling. This should've been edited a little more...so sorry, guys..


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